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Alienware Computers Will Come Pre-Loaded with Steam and Portal

admin — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 18:16:00 +0000

Dell announced that its all powerful Alienware line of PC gaming systems, including the Area-51 and Aurora desktops and the M17x and M15x laptops, will now come pre-loaded with a free copy of Valve’s award-winning game, Portal, powered by Steam, a leading platform for PC games with over 20 million accounts worldwide.

With Steam pre-installed on all these PCs, Alienware gamers can expect a higher level of service from their gaming experience right out of the box as existing Steam gamers may simply sign into their account to access all their purchased products. Customers new to Steam will find over 950 games at their finger tips, all supported by automatic updates, the Steam Friends Community of networking services, and more.

“With its automatic game updates, easy friend finding and the ability to play your Steam purchased games on any PC, Valve has helped simplify PC Gaming to make it more enjoyable.” says Frank Azor, Senior Manager of Product Planning for Dell’s Gaming Group. “It’s for these reasons; we selected Steam to compliment the Alienware experience.”

“Entertainment, specifically gaming, is a primary use of PCs in the home and on the road,” said Jason Holtman, director of business development at Valve. “Alienware is a household name among PC gamers who want the most out of their hardware. The combination of Alienware hardware and Steam equals a superior gaming experience.”

Dead Space 2 Announced

admin — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 18:47:01 +0000

Visceral Games, an Electronic Arts studio announced today that the award-winning Dead Space franchise will continue to frighten gamers with its new sequel, Dead Space 2.

Hero Isaac Clarke returns for another heart-pounding adventure, taking the fight to the Necromorphs in an action-horror experience. New tools to gruesomely slice and dismember the Necromorphs complement Isaac’s signature Plasma Cutter, empowering him as he meets new characters, explores epic Zero-G environments, and fights against a relentless necromorph onslaught. Survival isn’t the only thing on Isaac’s mind in Dead Space 2 – this time, he calls the shots.

“Like so many gamers worldwide, we love the Dead Space franchise and are very excited to announce a new game in the series,” said Nick Earl, Senior VP and Group General Manager at EA. “Visceral Games is quickly becoming known for delivering high-quality, action-packed games. Dead Space 2 is on target to deliver a jaw-dropping experience gamers won’t soon forget.”

“We’re thrilled to jump back into the series, making the next chapter in Isaac’s journey. The infection continues to spread throughout space and our hero Isaac Clarke is the only person able to contain it. There are still loads of necromorphs that need killing!” said Steve Papoutsis, Executive Producer of Dead Space 2. “In Dead Space 2, not everything is exactly as it seems. Expect plot twists that will surprise you and a huge cast of twisted, disgusting monsters that are sure to scare the daylights out of you.”

Originally launched in 2008, Dead Space quickly became one of EA’s top rated wholly-owned intellectual properties. With close to 100 industry awards and an average critic score of 89, Dead Space became a hit with horror and videogame fans worldwide. In 2009, EA launched Dead Space Extraction, a prequel to the original Dead Space that expanded the fiction and brought the franchise to the Wii.

Dead Space 2 is being developed for the PlayStation 3, the Xbox 360 and on PC.

AMD Announces VISION Technology

admin — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 09:13:28 +0000

AMD today announced a new way to help consumers select the PC that best meets their needs. Working with retailers and PC manufactures, VISION Technology from AMD breaks the model in how PC benefits are communicated. Rather than the traditional model, which focuses on the technical specifications of individual hardware components, VISION communicates the value of the whole system and demonstrates the combined processing power of both the CPU and GPU to deliver a superior visual experience to mainstream PC users. It emphasizes how an AMD-based PC is optimized for video, digital media and content creation activities. VISION guides the industry past the era of CPU-centric marketing and describes the PC capabilities in terms of what can be enjoyed on the system – see, share, create. This helps consumers to make better informed buying decisions.

“Today’s consumer cares about what they can do with their PC, not what’s inside,” said Nigel Dessau, CMO of AMD. “They want a rich HD and entertainment experience on their PC, delivered by the combined technology of AMD CPUs and GPUs, without having to understand what gigahertz and gigabytes mean. VISION technology from AMD reflects the maturation of marketing in the PC processing industry and communicates the technology in a more meaningful way.”

Notebook PCs with VISION Technology from AMD are expected to be widely available on retail shelves and online during the holiday buying season timed to the release of the Windows 7 operating system from Microsoft. Complementing VISION, Windows 7 supports DirectX 10, Direct X10.1, and Direct X11 for richer 3D detail on games and other media apps, and a Unified Video Decoder to free up the CPU so that users can have a superior visual and more responsive computing experience while converting video for use on hand held devices. This last activity is greatly simplified and much more rapid with the new Drag and Drop feature of Windows 7.

“We are excited for the upcoming launch of Windows 7, when our OEM partners will introduce some exciting new PCs that match our mutual customer’s needs and feedback,”

said Mike Ybarra, general manager of Windows Product Management at Microsoft Corp. “Coupled with VISION Technology from AMD, customers can feel confident that the PC they purchase will deliver a rich, tailored PC experience.”

AMD’s 2009 notebook platforms, also announced today, serve as the first proof points for VISION Technology. Mainstream OEM notebooks offered with VISION have next-generation HD graphics technology for rich, vivid HD and Blu-ray video playback, life-like 3D games, brilliant, clear photos, and multi-tasking power for editing photos, music and videos.

For consumers seeking rich PC experiences in a very thin and stylish notebook, innovative ultrathin OEM notebooks with VISION are designed to deliver highly responsive, balanced performance and a superior visual experience at accessible price points. VISION technology contains three levels of increasingly rich PC system capabilities: VISION Basic, VISION Premium, and VISION Ultimate to reflect the different usage patterns of PC consumers: from digital consumption to content creation.

These notebook platforms bring visually-rich experiences to consumers through features such as:

• UP to one billion colors for crystal-clear photos and videos,
• DirectX 10.1 for smooth, lifelike games,
• 7.1 audio for pulse-pounding music; and

• Blu-ray support for the latest movies.

“We focus our attention on R&D and marketing communications to users that identify themselves with state-of-the-art and innovative products that can simplify life through technology,” said Gianpiero Morbello, Marketing and Branding Corporate Vice President of Acer, Inc. “VISION Technology from AMD represents an innovative PC usage and we are always ready to offer a superior visual experience to our customers for advanced HD video entertainment.”

In the first quarter of 2010, AMD plans to introduce a fourth level, VISION Black, to enable the highest end capabilities sought by enthusiasts, primarily on desktop PCs. Descriptions of the types of activities available at each level will be available in-store and online, so that buyers can align their needs and make the right choice for their preferred experience.

Wii 9 Times Reliable Then XBox 360

admin — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 10:02:17 +0000

After analyzing more than 16,000 new game consoles covered by SquareTrade Care Plans, SquareTrade found that the Wii is 9 times more reliable than Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and 4 times more reliable than Sony’s Playstation 3.

Looking at the first 2 years of ownership, 2.7% of Wii owners reported a system failure to SquareTrade, compared with 10.0% of PlayStation 3 owners, and 23.7% for Xbox 360 owners.

As expected, the famous RROD (Red Ring Of Death) is the most common Xbox 360 failure. Excluding RROD failures, which are covered by Microsoft’s 3-year warranty, Xbox 360 failure rate drops to 11.7%.

SquareTrade believes that the RROD problem is more severe than reported, since most Xbox 360 owners who face it bypass SquareTrade and report it directly to the Microsoft’s warranty service. SquareTrade’s study noted that while the RROD problem continued to be the major issue for Xbox 360s purchased through 2008, early indications point to the problem abating in 2009.

SquareTrade also found that the most common types of problems seen with the PS3 and Xbox 360 were disc read errors and output issues, and that the Wii had more power and remote control issues than the other 2 systems.

World of Warcraft: The Magazine, coming soon

admin — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 09:42:13 +0000

In a rather surprising turn of events, Blizzard has announced that they’re teaming up with publishing group Future to print a quarterly magazine about, you guessed it, World of Warcraft.

For the yearly subscription price of $39.95 USD, readers will receive four issues of the ad-free WoW magazine, including concept art, hints and sneak peeks at upcoming content patches and expansions, interviews with developers, strategies for raid and dungeon encounters, and more “insider and player perspectives”. The issues are stated to be more than 140 pages long and glossy as heck.

It’s admittedly rather shocking that a magazine like this is getting published — not because of content or anything like that, but because print is considered a flagging medium. The formula for success here seems to be to offer a high-end product — Future says they consider it more of a “collectible coffee-table book” than a magazine — and sustain it on subscriptions alone, since it’ll be free of advertising. Hopefully legions of fans will subscribe and give the ‘zine its lifeblood, since it actually sounds pretty cool to me.

The first issue is scheduled to go to press at an as-yet-unknown date this fall, and is supposed to contain interviews with top guilds about Ulduar strategies, a retrospective on WoW for its fifth anniversary, and unnamed other content.

Those wishing to subscribe can visit the magazine’s official website on August 21st — that’s BlizzCon day one — and enter their info there, or visit the WoW Magazine booth at the ‘Con itself.

by Michael Sacco

[wow.com]

Lionhead outlines Fable II/III crossover

admin — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 10:24:51 +0000

Those who had kids in Fable II will be able to play as them in Fable III, Lionhead boss Peter Molyneux has confirmed.

The idea behind Fable III is to become the ruler of Albion, uniting factions and either ruling as a great and just leader, or as a money grabbing tyrant.

BloodRayne video Apparently, Lionhead drew inspiration from the likes of “Joan of Arc, Richard III, Genghis Khan, Ben Fogle.”

There will also be recurring characters from Fable II.

Sounds fun. More as it happens.

PSP 2 ditching UMD drive? (News)

admin — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 14:54:03 +0000

What we heard: Ever since the Sony/Nintendo/Microsoft console war began in earnest in 2001, the Big Three have been fanatical about information control. Even the series of “leaks” leading up to the Xbox 360′s unveiling in 2005 turned out to be a too-clever-by-half alternate reality game.

El Greco full

Little wonder then, with the official PR process so rigidly micromanaged, that gamers pounce on the smallest iota of information that emerges outside of the publicity food chain. Lately, many tidbits have prematurely bubbled up via Twitter, the suddenly omnipresent microblogging service that has been seized upon by the mainstream media and midlevel celebs. Besides your actual friends, you can now follow CNN, the BBC, and the New York Times, in addition to Levar Burton, rapper Q-Tip, and Firefly alum Summer Glau, and the artist formerly known as MC Hammer (among many others).

However, gamers have known about Twitter for a while now, and tech-savvy developers and journalists have used it to communicate since 2006. Indeed, the past several months have seen several stories break on Twitter. Last December, Newsweek‘s game correspondent used it to report from an Activision meeting where Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was first revealed. Earlier this month, the game’s existence was further confirmed by a tweet from Infinity Ward director of communications and community manager Robert Bowling before it was officially announced during a February 11 Activision Blizzard earnings conference call.

This week, it was Sony’s turn to be twisted in twain twixt Twitter tweets. In the post in question, Perry declared, “I hear Sony FINALLY has the PSP 2. And thank goodness, they’ve removed the stupid battery-sucking UMD disc drive. I’m excited!”

The official story: “We don’t comment on rumor or speculation. Equally, we have no relation with David or his company, so [we're] not sure why there’d be any weight put to his comments to the press,” said a Sony rep, before adding, “Did you see our PSP announcements [on Tuesday]? UMD isn’t going away…”

Bogus or not bogus?:

007 Die Another Day dvdrip

On one hand, Sony has a point that–with Rock Band, Assassin’s Creed, MotorStorm, and Little Big Planet all just announced for the handheld–UMD isn’t on the precipice of abandonment. On the other, Perry is an old hand with numerous contacts in the industry. Why would he spread speculation that he suspected of being false?

One possiblity: They could both

be telling the truth, and Sony is planning a UMD-less PSP model to market alongside the UMD-drive-packing PSP. And keep in mind, the company already releases games as UMDs and digital downloads simuntaneously. So having the two hardware models overlap might be a way of segueing between game formats. Nintendo is doing something similar later this year, when it will sell the DS Lite, which has a Game Boy Advance slot, and the DSi, which loses the GBA slot in favor of DSiWare digital distribution capabilities, at the same time.

Source [GameSpot]

Ready at Dawn readying new PSP God of War? (News)

admin — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 14:50:18 +0000

What we heard: Speaking with GameSpot in May 2008, Ready at Dawn cofounder and creative director Ru Weerasuriya expressed a measure of doubt over whether his studio would return to the PSP. The news came as some disappoint to game-starved PSP owners, considering the independent developer’s success in 2006 with Daxter and 2008 with God of War: Chains of Olympus, arguably two of the best titles for Sony’s handheld.

Chin up, PSP gamers, as Ready at Dawn may not be done with the platform after all. Joystiq reports today it has received word from a “trusted source” that Sony has commissioned a new PSP installment in its wildly successful God of War franchise, developed by none other than…Ready at Dawn. While details on the title were not revealed, the gaming blog’s source indicated that Ready at Dawn may have something to show at this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo, which will take place at the Los Angeles Convention Center June 2-4.

The situation is entirely plausible. On the developer’s own blog in December, Ready at Dawn commented on the recent holiday sales success of Chains of Olympus and Daxter, saying, “Maybe we should reconsider this whole ‘no more PSP games’ thing because we seem to be pretty good at it.”

Medicine Man dvdrip

Ready at Dawn has also said it is at work on two separate titles. One of those games appears to be an original title for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, if a since-removed LinkedIn update by a Ready at Dawn lighting artist is to be believed. The other project, however, is shrouded in mystery, as job listings on the developer’s Web site only serve to support an in-development title for the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.

The official story: “It’s all just rumor and speculation at this point.”–A Sony representative.

Bogus or not bogus?: God of War is a franchise that begs for sequels, regardless of what platform they may be for. If Ready at Dawn is waffling on its position to abandon the PSP, it seems highly likely Sony would be falling over itself to once again hand off its coveted franchise to the proven studio. Tentative not bogus.

Source [GameSpot]

GTAIV: The Lost and Damned sets one-day XBLA sales record (News)

admin — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 14:44:29 +0000

Microsoft declares first 360-exclusive Grand Theft Auto IV add-on has generated more revenue in 24 hours than any other DLC; hard numbers MIA.

Given that Grand Theft Auto IV has sold more than 5.2 million copies in the US alone, there was little question that its first expansion would be a hit. Sure enough, today Microsoft declared that Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned has “eclipsed first-day revenue for all previous downloadable content on Xbox Live.” Microsoft also mentioned that the game was the “highest reviewed downloadable content ever from Rockstar Games,” although many sites declined to grade it as a full game.

Did Johnny Kleibitz make Microsoft’s $25 million back?

But while Microsoft was big on bravado in terms of The Lost and Damned’s number-one ranking, it was short–very short–on details. The 360-maker did not provide figures for how many units of the $20 expansion have been downloaded, nor did it say if the expansion was the top download domestically, internationally, or both. As of January 31, the 360 edition of GTAIV had sold more than 3.3 million units in the US according to the NPD, offering a massive installed base for the download. However, since it only tracks sales at retail, NPD will not be measuring sales of The Lost and Damned.

However successful the expansion, it will need to sell quite well to recoup the amount Microsoft paid for its exclusivity. In a conference call last June, Take-Two Interactive executives said that the software giant had paid $50 million for two 360-only expansions for the open-world crime game. The second 360-exclusive expansion is due later in the year.

Source [GameSpot]

Street Fighter movie roughed up by reviewers (news)

admin — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 12:02:14 +0000

For the first time since Jean-Claude Van Damme and the Raul Julia (in his final role) duked it out in 1994, a Street Fighter film is premiering across the US. News Corporation subsidiary 20th Century Fox is opening Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li

in over 1,100 theaters today. The studio is hoping the film’s roots in Capcom’s video game series and the recent launch of Street Fighter IV will attract young males, with young females all but guaranteed to flock to Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience.

Unfortunately for Fox, Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li won’t be riding a wave of hosannas from critics to box office glory. The first reviews of the film have hit Metacritic, and they range from tepid antipathy to venomous scorn. The least negative summary so far is from Variety‘s Rob Nelson, who calls it “Neither the best nor the worst of movies derived from videogames…at least [it] gives action fans plenty to ogle besides the titular heroine.”

The Hollywood Reporter‘s Frank Scheck was less diplomatic, declaring, “Yet another video game crashes and burns upon its translation to the big screen with this cinematic rendition of the venerable franchise.”

However, the sharpest barb, though, comes from Entertainment Weekly‘s Adam Markovitz, who gave the film a grade of D-minus. “It’s an anonymous soup of pan-Asian action cliches slopped into the story of a fast-kicking hottie out to avenge her kidnapped father,” he writes. “The fight scenes are saggy, the actors are stiff, and the sleepiness of it all is enough to make you nostalgic for the simple smackdown charms of the movie’s namesake videogame.”

Alien Trespass psp Markovitz singles out Chris Klein (Rollerball) and Kristen Kreuk (Smallville) for particular scorn for their flat portrayals of classic canon characters Charlie and Chun-Li. The film co-stars Michael Clarke Duncan (The Green Mile

Charlotte’s Web trailer ) as Balrog and Rick Yune (The Fast and the Furious) as Gen, with Moon Bloodgood (Journeyman), Edmund Chen (the original Hong Kong version of The Eye

), rapper Taboo (of the Black Eyed Peas), and Shaw Bros. legend Chang Pei Pei (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) in supporting roles. The Legend of Chun-Li was directed by former cinematographer Andrzej Bartkowiak, who is already infamous amongst gamers for his direction of the slightly less panned big-screen version of Doom.

Source [GameSpot]